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life, taking turns, everyone would recite something spiritually uplifting to the small child, at regular intervals. His younger sister would sing such beautiful hymns with so much emotion, that people would find it difficult to hold back their tears.
Mother was the most determined in her efforts. She would recite the holy nine prayers (navsmaran) eulogizing our tirthankaras, rushimandal stotra, some-times the 'iryavahi stotra, which is a penitence for our sins. She would explain the meaning of every word and lovingly caress his head and explain "son ! In the past we must have been instrumental in causing sufferings for many and the time has come to pay for our sins. But remember ! You are not going to be weak. You have to teach us how to bear with a dreadful disease". The son, who had immense love for his mother, would nod his head in acknowledgement. She would remind him the 14 vows of a shravak in the morning as well as in the evening.
Sometimes his mother would take him vicariously on an entire pilgrimage (Bhavyatra) of the holy Shatrunjay tirth. The child would not even know how two hours passed doing this. Sometimes she would make him recite the eighteen ways of committing sins, with a view to make him repentant for his sins. Sometimes she would make him seek pardon of all the living beings in the universe. Sometime she would recount all the big temples of Mumbai alongwith the presiding deities therein and then test his knowledge about the same. In this manner he would do a vicarious mental pilgrimage of more than twenty temples every day. All the members of the family would participate in this noble act of helping the child to maintain his peace and while doing so, they themselves also became high level spiritual aspirants.
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MIND YOUR mind : 56
